Tricks highlight fun with physics

Garry Krinsky's "wish list" for his upcoming performance in the Abbey Theater required that his hosts visit the nearest hardware store.

The self-proclaimed "vaudevillian"-style showman requested two identical 5-foot ladders, two identical 2-foot ladders and one 8-foot ladder -- and he specified the weight and class of each, said Michael Schirtzinger, supervisor of the Dublin venue.

Krinsky, who schools young audiences in scientific principles and simple machines during his one-hour show, will balance the ladders on his chin to demonstrate a fulcrum.

"He does amazing things with physics," Schirtzinger said.

In his "Toying With Science" presentation, Krinsky combines circus skills with mime, original music and audience involvement.

The fast-paced, high-energy production was commissioned in 1995 by the Museum of Science in Boston.

"They wanted me to find the science principles in my toys," Krinsky said from his home in Greenfield, Mass.

He had previously entertained audiences as an original member of the Boston Buffoons, which mixed pantomime and theatrical clowning, and the New England vaudeville company the Wright Bros.; and as a co-founder of the two-person Patchwork Players, which blended elements of acting, singing and miming.

At the time, the Boston museum had a toy exhibit featuring, for example, a giant stuffed bear riding a unicycle on a tightrope -- and leaders there viewed Krinsky as a good fit.

He has since presented "Toying With Science" at thousands of schools and theaters nationwide.

Krinsky calls his show -- designed for kindergartners through sixth-graders -- a happy coincidence: It reinforces much of the science curriculum that students must know these days for state achievement tests.

Along those lines, his wife -- Marlynn K. Clayton, a teacher and an educational consultant -- has helped him hone his act.

"She understands how kids think," he said. "One thing my wife taught me is it's good to be repetitive in a creative way."

Which means, in part, involving his audience in the learning.

Krinsky always calls youngsters onstage to teach them how to balance feathers and to juggle scarves and plastic bags.

Before he began educating children, though, he had to embrace the subject himself.

What helped, he said, was that he had long been interested in working with machines -- useful tools for a mime -- but he hadn't picked up a great amount of scientific knowledge.

"I totally got into that and taught myself. I have to understand it like a layperson understands it."

His performance benefits from his interest in sports.

"I always wanted to be a professional athlete when I grew up," said Krinsky, a triathlete who has run the Boston Marathon, which attracts world-class racers.

("That's like playing football with Tom Brady.")

At the end of the show, the entertainer said, he turns around his backdrop and talks about his dream coming true through both science and athletics.

His 8-by-7 1/2 -foot set, with his name on one side and a quilt of his racing T-shirts on the other, then becomes a more integral part of the spectacle.